Tue 27 Dec 2011
Reviewed by Ray O’Leary: MARTHA GRIMES – The Old Contemptibles.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
MARTHA GRIMES – The Old Contemptibles. Little Brown, hardcover, 1991. Paperback reprints include: Ballantine, 1992; Onyx, 2006.
Superintendent Richard Jury is at an antiques flea market when he meets Jane Holdsworth, a widow with a sixteen-year-old son. They begin an affair so intense that Jury is about to propose marriage when she suddenly dies of a barbiturate overdose.
Though it looks like suicide, there’s enough wrong with the circumstances surrounding her death for Jury to be suspended while the death is under investigation.
This brings Jury’s friend Melrose Plant onto the scene, where he gets a job with the dead woman’s estranged in-laws to find out what he can. What he discovers is that not only did Jane’s late husband also commit suicide, but also both his mother and the family Cook were killed in supposedly accidental falls.
Grimes excels here in the creation of characters, and she gives herself plenty of range in which to strut her stuff: besides the usual characters, there are two children, the dead cook, and a couple of senior citizens, one of them a kleptomaniac. With a cast like that, how can it miss?
December 28th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
I’ve found that for me the plots in Grimes’s mysteries wander all over the place, nor am as fond of the other recurring (non-Jury) characters as she seems to be — including the inevitable Melrose Plant.
So, I’ve not read this one, not yet, anyway. Ray, you’ve made it sound worth reading, and indeed I may.
December 30th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
I’ve read every single Richard Jury book (and the Emma Graham series) and truth be told, I can never remember a Martha Grimes plot so it’s almost as if I’ve never read them. But I do enjoy them while I’m there.
My favorite Jury is THE OLD SILENT and I also love the one where Grimes leaves Jury shot for dead at the end of the book. But then…
I suffered tortures that whole year waiting to see if he’d live or die. 🙂
I like that we’re meant to reason out why Plant turned down his title.
I love the way Grimes has with animals, especially dogs.
December 30th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
I’m rather hit and miss on the Jury series. I did not like the first one I tried at all, but someone persuaded me to try another, and I did. I’ve gradually begun to change my mind about them, but there are a lot of them I haven’t read, including this one.
I’m the same way as you regarding the Nero Wolfe books, Yvette. I’ve read most of them, and while I can remember the general plot lines, I can NEVER remember who it was who whodunit, no matter how many times I’ve read one of them, and yes, some more than twice.
December 30th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
I think I’m going to want to reread this one. It sounds great.
And I know I read it.
December 31st, 2011 at 1:43 pm
With Wolfe it’s a little different with me, Steve. I can remember SOME of the basic plots, but in the end it doesn’t matter. I reread them all the time and still enjoy the heck out of them.
Much as I love Grimes, I can’t remember ever rereading her stuff. Though I’ve meant to. I think I’ll begin in 2012 with THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES. I have it here somewhere.